I think everyone has his guilty pleasure which you wouldn't recommend wholeheartedly to your friends. Mine's is definitely Obsidian's spy-RPG Alpha Protocoll. I personally enjoyed it very much even though it's a wobbly, inconsistent game that gets a few things right. It's filled with so many awkward and glitchy bits you get the feeling that it should've spent way more time in development. If you thought shooting in Mass Effect 1 was imprecise, Alpha Protocoll's is even worse. But I adored the game nonetheless because of its nonlinear storytelling and the possiblity of influencing the personality of the protagonist through decisions. Thank you Obisidan.

I just started playing this, and it's definitely a gem in the rough.

I remember playing through the game at least 6 times, Alpha Protocoll is not a very long game, and every time I experienced scenes I hadn't seen before because of different decisions I made. You can compare it somehow with The Walking Dead, the only difference is, it tried to be a game and failed terribly at that. However, if you belonged to those guys who complained about Mass Effect's decisions being without consequence in the end, Alpha Protocoll gives you real freedom of choice. You have of course the grand narrative, but it's up to you to decide how the story evolves. The game lets you not meet certain characters in one playthrough for instance, in another one you're able to meet them because you made different decisions. This is really rare in a game and I haven't played anything like it before. The ending you get is ultimately the sum of the actions. For all this reasons I'm willing to forgive the game's striking glitchiness and lack of polish.

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I'm finally on twitter. If you're a history buff and/or interested in video games history and random rpg stuff, check out @masakadojo.

Rogue Galaxy. The story and cast were dreadful (the sidequests were more compelling then the main plot) and there was so much backtracking that it was really easy to forget where you were even going most of the time, but the equipment smithing system was so addictive that by 20 or 30 hours in, I cared for little else other than creating the best weapons the game could produce.

Very strange that I poured almost 100 hours into it considering I'm usually so drawn to plot heavy epics with tons and tons of dialogue.

While I really don't agree with it being coined an RPG at all (though people have made the argument to me and I SEE the point I just don't FEEL it) I find myself a bit ashamed for my new found love of Borderlands 2.

The game is just so far out in left field in terms of what I typically enjoy. The shame factor is a result of foolishly fearing I may start falling in love with AAA titles and not appreciating the niche JRPG as much as I have in the past. I sort of always liked that I like bad games as it has led to some awesome discoveries/treasures I don't think I would have naturally stumbled upon.

While I really don't agree with it being coined an RPG at all (though people have made the argument to me and I SEE the point I just don't FEEL it) I find myself a bit ashamed for my new found love of Borderlands 2.

The game is just so far out in left field in terms of what I typically enjoy. The shame factor is a result of foolishly fearing I may start falling in love with AAA titles and not appreciating the niche JRPG as much as I have in the past. I sort of always liked that I like bad games as it has led to some awesome discoveries/treasures I don't think I would have naturally stumbled upon.

I... dunno if I jive with that. I seek out good games, and I don't care if it's a AAA title or a weird-ass Japan-only RPG or an indie title that got some positive attention over Twitter. When anyone disdains a certain development class (?) of game for being indie or AAA I think it's just denying one some good experiences.

...but with that said, I'm kinda ashamed that I'm playing Persona 3 again. It's my 4th playthrough in about 26 or 27 months. Why this time? I made a mistake in my third playthrough and didn't get 100% S.Links. Now I'm using a guide and beating a New Game +. Again. I might have a problem.

I... dunno if I jive with that. I seek out good games, and I don't care if it's a AAA title or a weird-ass Japan-only RPG or an indie title that got some positive attention over Twitter. When anyone disdains a certain development class (?) of game for being indie or AAA I think it's just denying one some good experiences.

What I meant was I fear being spoiled by the production value and inherent "bells and whistles" of AAA titles and newer games. I don't hold bias toward production class at all, but I certainly find going back to (or starting) certain titles after others can prove jarring depending on the circumstances. This tends to prove true for me, more often then not, within the ps2/ps3 era. In other words, if I go back and play an SNES game I rarely feel it is difficult to appreciate.

CASE AND POINT: I had a real love affair with NISA releases for quite awhile. Compile Hearts and Idea factory were not names that scared me one bit. Played hyperdimension and loved it, played agarest war 2 and loved a lot about it but put it down. Then I played Alice Madness Returns, a wee bit of Mortal Kombat, Tales of Graces F and finally X-Com. When I tried to get back to Agarest 2 I simply could not appreciate it like I did at first. Never finished it (sadly), nor did I find the thought of getting to Hyperdimension V all that appealing.

CASE AND POINT 2: Suikoden 2 is a magnificent title by my standards. However, last year when I played it post The Wind Waker HD I found it tough to to enjoy initially for all the wrong reasons.

In short, what I should have said (in the first place) was that I love that the age of or the production value of a title does not generally impact my criticisms of what I am playing. My fear however is that with enough time spent playing higher budget titles, I will become one of "those guys" who's sensibility and taste really is impacted more than I care for it to be by issues like "frame rate" and whatnot. Hence the "shame" enters the picture.

^^^^This does in fact severely cripple (or at the very least, compromises) my ability to have a good experience with some games. You are entirely correct good sir.

Of course this is all very silly and superficial, as I know a quick play-through of Secret of Mana for the 101st time cleanses my palette and sensibility nicely :)

No, I mostly get it. But what you said was that you were hoping that Borderlands wouldn't affect your enjoyment of more niche games and... I found that a little confusing. Liking one game doesn't change who you are. It means you liked a game. I guess I don't think about that kind of thing too often; for the most part, I know what I like.

No, I mostly get it. But what you said was that you were hoping that Borderlands wouldn't affect your enjoyment of more niche games and... I found that a little confusing. Liking one game doesn't change who you are. It means you liked a game. I guess I don't think about that kind of thing too often; for the most part, I know what I like.

Sadly I think Borderlands already did leave me with a bias that I can't quite identify. When I tried Resident Evil 6 I simply couldn't judge it based on its own merits and really found myself thinking about how much better it would feel to shoot at creatures in Borderlands instead. It took a good few hours before I was able to really identify that I just didn't like a # of things about RE6 and it wasn't a case of "compare and contrast two unlike objects" for me.

I guess all in all, any game I come to adore will make that which follows somewhat dull by comparison. After posting all this yesterday and today I realized that just about any RPG I played after a Tales game has been a big dissapointment to me.

I think this ^^ is something I need become more aware of in the future. LoL